Tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs) play a key role in the quality assurance of ultrasound diagnostic equipment and should have acoustic properties similar to human tissues. We propose a method to quantify the acoustic properties of TMM samples through the use of an 80 MHz Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM), which provides micrometer resolution and fast data recording. We produced breast TMM samples in varying compositions that resulted in acoustic impedance values in the range of 1.373 ± 0.031 and 1.707 ± 0.036 MRayl. Additionally, liver TMM and blood mimicking fluid (BMF) samples were prepared that had acoustic impedance values of 1.693 ± 0.085 MRayl and 1.624 ± 0.006 MRayl, respectively. The characterization of the TMMs by SAM may provide reproducible and uniform acoustic reference data for tissue substitutes in a single-run microscopy experiment.Thanks to their low cost, compactness and suitability of use in industrial environments, CW lasers represent a viable alternative to more traditional pulsed lasers for non-contact inspection of structures, both under static and working conditions. However, the lower energy density typically reached by CW lasers requires adequate attention to obtain ultrasonic signals with sufficient amplitude. CW lasers can be modulated by TTL sequences with different duty cycles to constructively use the excitation of a double ultrasonic wave, occurring when the laser is both turned on and off. An appropriate choice in terms of number and spacing of the TTL pulses allows for the optimization of the ultrasonic response from the excitation standpoint an increase in the amplitude of the ultrasound is enabled, and its frequency band modified. Such a solution allows to better adapt the ultrasonic wave to the receiver band, maximizing the global efficiency. In this work, the influence of the employed modulation sequence on the ultrasonic signal is analysed; by the TTL optimization proposed, application of the technique to the exemplary case of a rail represents a first implementation of CW lasers to the inspection of an industrial component.In this paper, the development of modified beamforming methods, Filtered Delay Weight Multiply and Sum (F-DwMAS) and Filtered Delay Euclidian-Weighted Multiply and Sum (F-DewMAS), are reported. These methods were investigated on a minimum-redundancy synthetic aperture technique, called as 2 element Receive Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (2R-SAFT), which uses one element on transmit and two consecutive elements on receive, for reducing hardware complexity without compromising much on the image quality. The performance of the developed F-DwMAS and F-DewMAS methods were compared with Delay and Sum (DAS) and recently introduced F-DMAS beamforming methods. Notably, in the proposed methods, an additional aperture window function is designed and incorporated to the F-DMAS method. The different methods of F-DwMAS, F-DewMAS, F-DMAS and DAS were compared in terms of the resulting image quality metrics, Lateral Resolution (LR), Axial Resolution (AR), Contrast Ratio (CR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), in simulation and experiments on tissue-mimicking phantoms. Experimental results show that (F-DwMAS) and F-DewMAS resulted in improvements of AR by (46.32% and 23.51%), 43.56% and 17.78%, LR by (47.81% and 30.27%), 44.26% and 26.14% and CR by (45.68% and 17.15%), 42.16% and 9.87% compared to those obtained using DAS and F-DMAS, respectively. However, CNR of F-DwMAS and F-DewMAS was found to be 31.19% and 21.16% less compared to DAS, but 4.89% and 18.64% more than F-DMAS, respectively. Hence, it can be concluded that the image quality improved by both F-DwMAS and F-DewMAS compared to DAS and F-DMAS. Also, between F-DwMAS and F-DewMAS, the later has the advantage of ready applicability to different acquisition schemes and settings compared to the former also having an additional advantage of better CNR compared to both F-DMAS and F-DewMAS.To investigate the value of quantitative parameters from spectral computed tomography for the differentiation of orbital lymphoma from other lymphoproliferative disease, including idiopathic orbital inflammatory disease (IOID) and IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD).
Patients with orbital masses who underwent pre-treatment contrast-enhanced spectral CT were enrolled in this retrospective study. The subjects were divided into lymphoma and other orbital lymphoproliferative disease groups. Qualitative imaging features (margin, location, enhancement pattern, cranial nerves, soft tissue, and bone involvement) were reviewed. Quantitative parameters (iodine density and spectral attenuation curve slope) derived from spectral CT were measured.
Eleven patients had orbital lymphoma and 11 had other orbital lymphoproliferative diseases (idiopathic orbital inflammatory disease (IOID), n?=?5; IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), n?=?6). Qualitative analysis showed no significant difference between the two groups. There was sighigher iodine density value and spectral attenuation curve slope than IOID/IgG4-RD.To investigate the relationship between aponeurotic expansion of supraspinatus tendon and disorders of biceps brachii long head (LHB), supraspinatus and subscapularis tendons.
Images of 3.0?T shoulder magnetic resonance images (MRI) of a total of 154 patients and 157 shoulders (3 cases with bilateral imaging) between the ages of 18-45 were retrospectively evaluated for the presence of aponeurotic expansion. When identified it was further categorized according to its thickness. Tendinopathy and tears of LHB, supraspinatus and subscapularis tendons and LHB subluxations were evaluated individually. Statistical analyses were performed using Chi-square, Fisher's exact, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskall-Wallis tests. Odds ratio and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed when applicable. p?&lt;?0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
A total of 82 male and 72 female cases with a mean age of 34 (±8.2) were included. Aponeurotic expansion could be identified in 31 cases (19.8 %). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/kribb11.html MRI findings for LHB disorders in this group was significantly higher (p?=?0.01). The adjusted odds ratio of having LHB tendinopathy in the presence of aponeurotic expansion was 3.25 (% 95 CI1.29-8.19). No significant correlation was found between presence of aponeurotic expansion and subscapularis or supraspinatus tendon disorders (p?=?0.66 and p?=?0.792 respectively). Age was a significant variable for disorders of all three tendons (p?&lt;?0.001).
On 3.0?T MRI, findings of LHB tendon disorders were significantly more common in cases with aponeurotic expansion of supraspinatus tendon. This anatomical variation may have an unrecognized clinical significance.
On 3.0?T MRI, findings of LHB tendon disorders were significantly more common in cases with aponeurotic expansion of supraspinatus tendon. This anatomical variation may have an unrecognized clinical significance.